Here, Richard Phillips, mechanical engineer and partner of CPA, talks to Hoist about joining the company in January, and how manufacturers need to regularly service and maintain their cranes to avoid fatigue.
Richard is the son of one of the founders of CPA, founded in 1987 by Bill Casper and Rich Phillips after relocating from a California consulting firm.
The pair started out as structural engineers specializing in container cranes, since expanding to include mechanical and electrical expertise. Their expertise covers most types of cranes from RTG, RMG, and Goliath cranes to B.O.P handlers on drill ships.
Their latest projects include; installing a seismic isolation system on two quayside container cranes in a major seismic activity zone in Asyaport, Turkey. The cranes have a 100 ft. (30.48m) gantry span, 223 ft. (68m) outreach, 66 ft. (20m) back-reach, and 152 ft. (46.3m) lifting height above the gantry rail.
Upgrading CPA’s proprietary crane analysis software, for pre- and post-processing during finite element analysis of cranes and recently completing remediation of three 40 metric ton capacity rail-mounted gantry cranes (RMGs) at a major North American port, after conducting a root-cause analysis following gearbox failure.
The company also recently designed and installed a bespoke fall protection system for a large commercial airplane supplier.
